Daryl at Biker-Events blogs that the Ironhorse Roundup Bike Show in Grayslake, IL was cancelled by the police and mayor, claiming that they received a tip that two rival motorcycle clubs were planning a "rumble" there...

http://www.biker-events.com/....bike-show-cancelled-at-the-last-minute/

Those who did show up, were disappointed to find that the show was cancelled.

Apparently, no rumble took place.

The article goes on to say that the mayor was trying to prevent what happened in Laughlin, NV in 2002. But that fight wasn't planned, it just materialized on its own.

So what do you folks think? Did the mayor simply want to do away with any kind of motorcycle events in town, or was this a real threat?

How many motorcycle clubs do you know of that schedule their "rumbles", and schedule them in in the middle of crowded area, where police and security are all over the place?

Labels: Biker Discrimination

Making news recently is the Iron Horse Hotel, in Milwaukee, WI, dubbed the first ever hotel geared towards motorcycle riders.

You can read about them on their website...
http://www.theironhorsehotel.com

As far as being geared towards motorcycle riders, I don't see much. Here's what they have to say on how they plan to be focused towards motorcyclists...

- Secure, covered motorcycle parking
- Check-in carts and rag bins
- On-site bike wash
- On-premise retailer with travel essentials and rider accessories
- In-room storage for heavy leathers, riding boots and helmets
- Rejuvenation spa services and special riding packages

Labels: Biker Discrimination

On HDForums.com you can read the postings of bikers ranting about being denied service as they tried to place their orders at fast-food drive-thrus...

Pulled up to the Take Out Window, clerk says: "We don't serve motorcycles at the Drive Up Window. If you want something you have to come inside"

Asked why, was told, same line of BS. By this time, cars were starting to line up behind bike. Asked for Manager, was told to come inside to talk with Manager. Asked for Manager again. Told to wait until he was ready to see me. By this time again, cars are honking their horns.

Labels: Biker Discrimination

Lisa Haneberg, who writes the Go Moto blog for Seattle Post-Intelligencer, wonders if it's wise to disclose that you're a biker during a job interview.

She asks the question...

Is riding a motorcycle something that would endear or alienate us?

Labels: Biker Discrimination

A person going by the name "former_sportster_owner" posted a comment on this blog today claiming that Harley dealers would put him/her last for service because he/she brought in a Sportster...

You want condescending comments from HD elite, own a Sportster. I was treated like garbage cause I didn't own a real Harley. Dealers would put me last for service. After I sold my Sportster that was the end of the line with Harley. The treatment I receive lost me as a customer.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Harley Davidson Sportster

According to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wearing your "cut" does not constitute a form of free speech.

The decision was brought out by a lawsuit filed by the Top Hatters Motorcycle Club, who wanted to wear their colors at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on July 30, 2000, but were forced to remove them...

Festival promoters had an unwritten dress code policy barring gang colors or other insignia, including motorcycle club insignia. When the cyclists refused to remove their vests, their admission fees were refunded.

The club members claimed in a lawsuit filed against the city of Gilroy and the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association in federal court in San Jose in 2001 that the vests were a form of free speech.

Labels: Biker Discrimination

This article published by The Daily Texan illustrates that news reporters still like to paint bikers as drunken out-of-control lunatics...

http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/....2816407.shtml

It's a story about Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA) and their mission to provide protection for abused children. Yet, The Daily Texan makes it sound as if normal everyday bikers are drunken derelicts looking to start fights...

Members of BACA aren't there to start a drunken brawl or rough up anyone - quite the opposite - they come dressed in slacks and button-down shirts for the formal ordeal.

Sure, bikers usually look mean and tough with their tattoos, leather and unkempt pony tails, but don't let that fool you. BACA is different from other motorcycle clubs that have bad reputations such as the Hells Angels or Warlocks. Instead of riding their motorcycles from bar to bar raising hell, members of BACA spend their time with abused children, helping to make reality seem a little less like Hell.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Mainstream Media

Was checking out a relatively new biker blog called, "Beatnikbiker". The blogger lives in Texas, and apparently was discriminated against for looking like a biker.

http://beatnikbiker.com/..../biker-discrimination/

He took his gal to a place in Odessa, TX called, "Fast Eddie's". They were wearing doo-rags (or "buffs" as he calls them), and the waitress explained they don't allow doo-rags in their establishment...

Lisa was ahead of me and was the first to be told "Take that rag off your head". Not, "hello, how are you?" or "Is this your first time here?" or "Excuse me, but we have a prohibition here of wearing "rags" on your head". I replied "excuse me". To which the young waitress replied, "you have to take those things off". I began to comply and asked her if they did not permit hats of any kind in Fast Eddie's. She told me "No, hats and caps are ok. Just not those things."

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Texas

Just a perspective on how bikers are still not tolerated in some places, the City of Canyon Lake, CA, is debating a vote on whether or not to allow motorcycles in their town.

Right now, it's illegal to ride a motorcycle in much of the city. Specifically, Canyon Lake is a gated city, with about 90% of its inhabitants sealed behind a wall and secured gates. You can't ride a motorcycle within the gated area. You can ride a motorcycle in other parts of the city, outside the gate.

But believe it or not, there's a motorcycle club existing inside the city, within the gated area, called Canyon Lake Motorcycle Club. They can't ride their bikes there, they can't even ride them to get out of the gated area. They have to be pushed or trailered out.

Chuck Marler, the President of the club, was able to get a special ballot measure created to vote on whether or not to allow motorcycles to ride within the gated area. This ballot doesn't open the doors wide open to motorcycles, it only allows speeds no faster than 15mph, and still prohibits riding on streets with bike lanes. The ballot was created so that all riders don't have to trailer their bikes out.

And the ballot is getting a lot of criticism. The town's newspaper, The Friday Flyer, has an article about it.

He reiterates that he and other motorcyclists only want to be
able to ride their bikes to and from their homes to the gates. They are not asking to ride here recreationally or to attend Taco Tuesday and other functions on their bikes, he maintains.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, California Motorcycle Laws, Motorcycle Bans

That's the opinion of Dave Mathena, of Meridian, Mississippi, based on his letter to the Meridian Star Newspaper back on April 6, 2006.

He quotes...

I am confident that even the cheapest, lightest, plastic-made car protects its passengers more than the safest motorcycle. So why should we allow the iron horse to ride?

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Motorcycle Bans

A guy driving his car down the freeway decided to pull out his gun and open fire on a group of Hells Angels.

One died, another injured.

What are you more afraid of, Hells Angels, or some guy driving his car?

Labels: Biker Discrimination

Yesterday morning, a San Francisco-based morning radio show announcer told his listeners that he felt it was unfair for motorcyclists to split lanes in heavy traffic.

In California, it's not illegal to lane split.

So he called for drivers to open their doors when they see a biker splitting the lane, coming up from behind.

Several bikers expressed their anger at the announcer on a Bay Area motorcycle forum.

Interestingly, immediately after calling for Jihad against bikers, his show cut to commercial which happened to be a spot for a local Yamaha dealership. The dealer learned about the announcer's remarks, and placed calls to the radio station, spoke with station manager, and got them to announce an on-air apology.

Thanks to fellow biker Hyrise for letting us know.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Motorcycle Lane Splitting Laws

An opinion entitled, "Bike processions can be a big headache" published last week in the Toronto Star seems to suggest that bikers riding in a group are the cause of a number of accidents.

Note: you can also get the full article here.

The opinion starts out by describing members of the Southern Cruisers out for a ride on what apparently was a two-lane highway, with one lane moving in each direction. The riders were riding at the posted speed limit. A person driving a car at a very high speed quickly caught up to them, and found himself stuck behind them.

Getting frustrated, he entered the opposite lane in an attempt to pass them by. The problem was that he failed to see the truck coming at him. He swerved his car back into his lane, but in doing so clipped a motorcycle. He ended up killing himself, and injuring the two people on the motorcycle.

The author who wrote the opinion used this scenario as the basis for expressing his/her own frustrations with group riders. In fact, as you read through the opinion, the author seems to focus solely on bikers for having created frustration with many other drivers, and that something ought to be done about it.

The author further incriminated him/herself by writing the following sentence...

Not to mention the annoyance of 20 sets of straight pipes pointing directly at your eardrums.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Group Riding, Road Rage, Unsafe Drivers

That's the sentiment of man in Nevada City, California.

Ken Sebastian wrote those words last week in an opinion to the editors of The Union, a newspaper serving western Nevada County, California. The opinion was in response to another opinion written by Rita Cook that her grandkids were "frightened" by the sight of motorcycles and bikers while visiting nearby Grass Valley.

Sebastian said further about bikers...

Isn't it obvious they're only compensating for some gnawing inadequacy in their lives? Others may call their behavior rude or obnoxious when it's really only a pitiful cry for attention.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Organ Donors

The latest media debacle going around the Internet lately is an online advertisement that asks people to "Shoot the Biker" and get a free Sony Playstation. The ad shows a guy riding a motorcycle, and you're supposed to be a policeman pointing a gun. You use your mouse to position the crosshairs over the biker, and pull the trigger.

You can see the ad live here.

If you manage to hit the biker, you get to see him explode into flying chunks of red. And then, you are taken to the website of "yoursmartrewards.com", where you fill out a short form, and begin the process of claiming your free Sony Playstation. If you were to read fine print, you'd see that you have to participate in their consumer feedback program, in order to get the prize.

Being a biker, I'm rather disappointed to see that media creators saw fit to use the image of a biker as a symbol of hatred. I suppose many just see it as fun, and I imagine many bikers will see it as harmless fun. I doubt anyone will get a real gun and go out shooting bikers.

On the other hand, this type of advertisement follows in the footsteps of the most successful type of Internet advertising in the history of Internet advertising. It all started with the "Punch the Monkey" ad, where you see this cartoon monkey running around, and you control a boxing glove with your mouse. The ad was so irresistable, that it fetched click-through rates of as much as 50%. It got duplicated into a variety of other forms from "Shoot the Bear", to "Zap the Alien", to "Slap the Ho", and now "Shoot the Biker".

I realize there are other violent pieces of media getting published. Video games make fun out of killing people, innocent people even. Movies and music today seem to glorify the killing of innocent people. So why just criticize an Internet ad, when I should criticize everything else out there?

The short answer is that I don't tolerate any kind of violence, or glorification thereof. But this advertisement goes too far, in that it promises to reward you with a Sony Playstation if you are successful in shooting the biker. At least with a video game, where you kill innocent people, you don't receive free prizes in the mail. But this advertisement promises that you will. That's the difference.

What if you saw a billboard, posted outside, that said "Bring us a dead muslim, and win a free Hawaiian Vacation"? Or what if the Democratic Party took out a television commercial imploring people to "Slap a Republican, and we'll give you free NASCAR tickets"? Since when do advertisers start rewarding people for acting out violent deeds?

These advertisers might respond by saying, "Well, we didn't really mean for people to do these things, it was just meant to catch people's attention, it was just a joke". That's exactly what Yoursmartrewards.com would say about the "Shoot the Biker" ad. Where do we draw the line between fun and games, and taking matters seriously?

I'd suggest writing some e-mails to the following recipients, and let them know that we won't tolerate rewarding people for killing bikers, or killing anyone for that matter.

Yoursmartrewards.com (the folks who created the ad)
http://yoursmartrewards.com/cs/?user_gift_id=&promo_name=

Fastclick.com (the company distributing the ad across the Internet)
http://www.fastclick.com/contact.html

Sony Computer Entertainment
919 East Hillsdale Boulevard
Foster City CA 94404
(650) 655-8000

I called Sony, and asked to speak to someone in Marketing. I got a voice mail, but left a message. I think the best way to attack this is to go to Sony, and complain that these other companies are using their Playstation product and brand to reward people for violence.

Labels: Biker Discrimination

From KAAL TV 6, members of a motorcycle club are suing the Rochester Bar because it was denied access for wearing their colors:

The attorney representing the Sons of Silence motorcycle club says its members were refused entrance to the bar because they were wearing their "colors," or motorcycle apparel. He sent a letter to the bar warning of legal action, saying a 1998 state law prohibits that kind of discrimination.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Motorcycle Clubs

A group of motorcycle riders, along with some state legislators, in Washington State have gathered together to lobby for a new bill banning "motorcycle profiling". The group says it has gathered data that shows that police departments are unnecessarily harrassing bikers that fit a certain profile.

"If you have a Harley and black leather on, they think you're not a law-abiding citizen," he said.

"If they're saying it's a problem, I think it's worth it to address it," he said. "It's just as important as racial profiling is to the members of the minority community."

"The vast majority of people on these bikes, they're just regular folks," he said. "To assume they're all criminals because they ride motorcycles is quaint, if nothing else. And I think most good professional police officers know that."

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Washington Motorcycle Legislation